Post-judgment fee shifting will do little to protect small startups from predatory litigation from patent trolls. First and foremost, most startups are unable to realistically consider fully litigating a patent infringement suit due to the time and money to invest in a trial that is likely to take several years. Secondly, fee shifting may go far in protecting larger companies from low-merit predatory lawsuits from patent trolls, which may in turn lead to those trolls focusing on companies for whom settlement is the only realistic option. However, some sort of fee shifting would at least create some financial risk for patent trolls who hire attorneys on a contingent fee basis. Of the two possibilities, a full English Rule adoption is likely preferable to startups because it adds no additional complexity to the litigation and fee shifting is assured should the startup prevail at trial.

[citation: 13 J. on Telecomm. & High Tech. L. 171]

This conclusion is focused on "little guy as defendant" to troll. A separate realm, disadvantagous to little guy, is little guy vs. bigger guy infringer with better lawyers. Little guy needs to think twice because little guy can't afford to lose to bigger guy or troll.

Legal scholars only recently have begun exploring the benefits graphic novels bring to the study of law. n82 Thomas Giddens argues that the medium is ripe for interdisciplinary legal study because the comic form lends itself to "an epistemological exploration of the boundaries between word and image, and between rational and aesthetic ways of knowing." n83 Other scholars have been interested in the frequent occurrence of legal themes in comics, as evidenced by a special issue of Law Text Culture devoted to law in comics and graphic novels. n84 Still others have been interested in examining how lawyers are portrayed in comic books. n85 But graphic novels are still vastly underexamined when it comes to visual legal storytelling.

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About Me

I'm a patent lawyer located in central New Jersey. I have a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, where I studied graphite intercalation compounds at the Center for Materials Research. I worked at Exxon Corporate Research in areas ranging from engine deposits through coal and petroleum to fullerenes. An article that I wrote in The Trademark Reporter, 1994, 84, 379-407 on color trademarks was cited by Supreme Court in Qualitex v. Jacobson, 514 US 159 (1995) and the methodology was adopted
in the Capri case in N.D. Ill. An article that I wrote on DNA profiling was cited by the Colorado Supreme Court (Shreck case) and a Florida appellate court (Brim case). I was interviewed by NHK-TV about the Jan-Hendrik Schon affair. I am developing ipABC, an entity that combines rigorous IP analytics with study of business models, to optimize utilization of intellectual property. I can be reached at C8AsF5 at yahoo.com.